I fell in love with Kate and Anthony’s quirky garden wedding. I can’t quite tell whether it’s Kate’s bold accessories (her gorgeous gold cuff is on my wish list) the incredibly sweet handmade backdrops, or the fun they had. Either way it’s a wedding story, captured by Merge Photography I am honoured to tell!

The newlyweds start us off with the story of how their relationship came to be. “We were traveling around Europe separately and first met in a hostel in Germany. It wasn’t till 5 months later that we were set up by friends in London and pretty much started dating straight away. Neither of us had expected that a gap year romance would turn into a marriage 6 years later. Growing up in different States (Anthony is from Adelaide and Katie from Perth) meeting overseas meant picking one State to come back to.”

Kate and her sister pulled together the floral arrangements for the day. Each bridesmaid wore a coral orange gown from a different store.

Kate and Anthony were married at Theatre Gardens, Subiaco . The newlyweds telling, “We visited many parks across multiple trips to Perth and chose Theatre Gardens one rainy day. We liked that it wasn’t a typical wedding location and were lucky that Subiaco Council didn’t set restrictions on the length of time we could be there – a bonus for setting up and post ceremony drinks. We didn’t settle on the exact location within the park till a few days before the wedding. We were lucky that on the day the breeze gently blew flowers off the trees as Katie started walking down the aisle- nature’s own confetti.”

Kate walked down the aisle to “The wedding song by Angus and Julia Stone. Katie felt it was important that both her parents made the walk with her.”

Danicia Quinlan married the couple, who remember, “Danicia our celebrant was fantastic. From the first meeting up to the ceremony she made us feel relaxed and she truly understood the type of ceremony we were after.”

The couple married in front of a handmade backdrop, Anthony telling, ” Katie got the idea of creating a geometric backdrop from Pinterest. Over the course of a few days a dropsheet was painted in our garage and some clever friends designed a system to make sure it didn’t blow over in the wind. ”

“We were overwhelmed by the number of friends and family that were willing to travel interstate to help us celebrate. Katie’s Aunty also came over from American which was lovely.”

Of their photographers, Kate tells, “Jodie and Karolina from Merge Photography were an easy choice. We loved their candid style of photography and they were so easy to work with. Both are very bubbly which helped us feel relaxed during the romantic photo sessions. Having 2 photographers was something we were specifically interested in to help capture the special moments from different angles. We couldn’t be happier with how our pictures turned out.”

Katie and Anthony held their wedding reception at Katie’s parent’s home and filled the garden with plenty of handmade details, Anthony remarking, “Choosing the reception venue was easy. We didn’t like the idea of having to finish the party at a specific time typically set by hired venues and Katie’s parents have the most amazing backyard. Over the last couple of years they have renovated the house mostly by themselves and were more than happy to host our wedding, even if it was a lot of work! It was fun decorating my childhood home and creating some more memories there.”

The newlyweds remark, “It was really fun being able to dance the night away with our guests to our favourite songs without having stop the music at midnight. Because we had so many interstate guests we tried to make the most of the whole wedding weekend. We arranged afternoon drinks at a favourite pub the day before the wedding, lunch at another pub the day after the wedding and even went down the south coast of WA for a few nights with close family and friends.”

There was plenty of DIY. “Katie’s parents sourced an eclectic mix of chairs during verge collections and cleaned and repaired them. Katie sewed the cushion covers, painted the ceremony backdrop, made all the bouquets, designed the invites and all the other stationery, made the cake toppers, sewed the pocket squares, made the wedding favours and along with her parents made the ‘I love you too’ sign.”

“Having 2 Polaroid cameras for guests to use was a great idea. We hung up string and cards with everyone’s name on it and asked guests to take photos throughout the night and hang them up for us to keep. It helped with everyone interacting, made the night more fun and gave us some very funny memories of the night.”

Guests enjoyed a feast from Ryan John Private Chef. Katie and Anthony noting, “Ryan John Catering was helpful from the beginning. He provided us with honest feedback about what to expect and what we needed to make the night a success. Throughout our dealing with him it always felt like he had our best interests in mind.”

Of their first dance, Kate remembers, “We were rather nervous about our first dance and tried to practice it a couple of nights before the wedding without much success. In keeping with the relaxed vibe of the night we didn’t want a formal style dance- Anthony isn’t the most coordinated on the dance floor. In the end we quickly had a drink to boost our confidence and did our best. We danced to That’s What’s Up by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.”

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